Some automobiles have a spoiler for changing a flow of air around an automobile body during running of the automobile. A mounting structure for mounting a spoiler to a lower part of a front bumper is known from, for example, JP-A-2003-341 561. The disclosed structure will be discussed with reference to FIG. 7 hereof.
Referring to FIG. 7, a conventional spoiler mounting structure 100 includes a front bumper 101 and a spoiler (air dam) 105. The front bumper 101 has a forward projecting portion 103 connected to a lower end portion 102 thereof. The spoiler 105 has a mounting part 106 mounted to the forward projecting portion 103.
The forward projecting portion 103 and the lower end portion 102 of the front bumper 101 jointly define an accommodating portion 107 accommodating therein an upper portion 108 of the mounting part 106. The mounting part 106 has a lower portion 109 disposed under the forward projecting portion 103. The lower portion 109 has a rearwardly extending portion 110.
The extending portion 110 has an engagement hole 111. The front bumper 101 has a rearward projecting portion 112 extending rearwardly from a rear end of the forward projecting portion 103. The rearward projecting portion 112 has a hook-shaped engagement projection 113. With the engagement projection 113 engaged with the engagement hole 111, the spoiler 105 is mounted to a lower portion of the front bumper 101.
An automobile including the structure 100 may take two forms, one of which is equipped with the spoiler 105, and the other of which is not equipped with the same. When the automobile takes the other form, that is, the automobile is not equipped with the spoiler 105, the spoiler 105 needs to be removed from the lower end portion 102 of the front bumper 101.
With the spoiler 105 removed from the lower end portion 102 of the front bumper 101, the forward projecting portion 103, the accommodating portion 107 and the engagement projection 113 all of which are located at a lower part of the front bumper 101 are exposed to an outside of the automobile. The exposed portions 103, 107, 113 are likely to adversely affect air flow around an automobile body during running of the automobile, as well as to provide unpleasant appearance of the automobile.
To address the above problem, the automobile which is not equipped with the spoiler 105 is required to use another type of front bumper including none of the forward projecting portion 103, the accommodating portion 107 and the engagement projection 113. This means that there should be provided two types of the front bumper, one used for the automobile equipped with the spoiler 105, and the other used for the automobile not equipped with the spoiler 105. This results in an increase in the number of components of the automobile. Further, maintenance operation on such an increased number of components is difficult to easily perform. Furthermore, the increase in the number of components makes it difficult to reduce the number of steps for assembling the automobile. There is a demand for a front bumper applicable to both an automobile equipped with a spoiler and an automobile not equipped with the spoiler.